I have now made my way through the demo and the last to tutorial scenarios were a bit above my head for the time being.

I find the interface to be a bit of a pain. That is one thing that Total War gets quite right, it is usefull to be able to see where your soldiers will set up and it is nice to be able to pause and issue commands. Wish you could do that in this game. I hope these problems will be sorted out in the future.

But, I have to say that this is quite a brilliant game and I have had a great time so far with just the demo. I will be definitely pick up the game and the expansions, pretty much after I finish typing here. This game seems like it will keep me entertained for a long time.

I'm quite interested in the American Civil War after watching the Gettysburg and Gods and Generals movies back in the day and am looking foward to many days of fighting.

I recently purchased this game after giving the demo a whirl, great fun so far. I've been replaying the tutorials to get the hang of it. The mods help, especially getting rid of the lime tree's. Yea the one thing i would ask for is to be able to give orders while paused, make it an option. It would help new players. the mods don't work on the stock scenarios. You have to download either the SDK and rename the scenarios and put them in the scenario folder so you can play them thru the user scenario so the mods will work with them, or i understand if you download the historical scenario mod it does the same thing. i'm running these mods without issue so far. The ones with the yellow block are active.

Man, you guys are great PR, we at SOW thank you. There have been several requests for the pause to give orders. This may be considered for the future engines. However, frankly, we think this is part of the SOW experience, giving orders on the fly, making fast and determined decisions, and living or dying by them. Besides, as with most musket wars, this game moves slow.

After you become accustomed to the SOW style of play, I think this pause necessity need will subside. It did with me, early on I wanted and thought I needed that pause to head things off. But no more, the real time non pause action provides for an adrenalin rush that is quite unique. If the pause is incorporated, I won't even use it...and spoil my immersion, NOT EVEN.

Well cut us turn based WW2 players a break will ya we like to contemplate things and then make our bad moves.

I do have a question, well a couple anyway. In every scenario i'm the main boss without any directly subordinate units. every other unit is AI controlled unless i take over. I issue orders to the brigade, division or corps commanders... right. i'm still working thru the tutorials, are there any free setup scenarios where you can place your troops prior to battle? Are all the scenarios setup so you can only play from one side or can you pick your side on any of the scenarios?

Final query. Is the new game an addon or new game? from what i've read it's pretty close to being done. Now i'm not sure if you know this or not, but here at Matrix we like beta screens, beta AAR's, beta featureas, basically anything we can squeeze out of you guys...that's how we roll around here.

_____________________________

Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground* I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

Well cut us turn based WW2 players a break will ya we like to contemplate things and then make our bad moves.

I do have a question, well a couple anyway. In every scenario i'm the main boss without any directly subordinate units. every other unit is AI controlled unless i take over. I issue orders to the brigade, division or corps commanders... right. i'm still working thru the tutorials, are there any free setup scenarios where you can place your troops prior to battle? Are all the scenarios setup so you can only play from one side or can you pick your side on any of the scenarios?

Final query. Is the new game an addon or new game? from what i've read it's pretty close to being done. Now i'm not sure if you know this or not, but here at Matrix we like beta screens, beta AAR's, beta featureas, basically anything we can squeeze out of you guys...that's how we roll around here.

I saw where you have Bugles and Flags included as a mod...cool. Included with it are 3 'select unit and side' scenarios, one is GB-DRF-July3-Pickett's Charge CSA USA...denoted by the ending as a you pick'em scenario. Regarding setting up your own scheme...learn to mod. Positioning troops for your own scenario is relatively easy, you don't even have to script it, just set AI=1 in the scenario.ini file and they'll go at it, fighting that is. Also, it's easy to set your scenario as a you pick'em scenario, just put all zeros in said file in the level listing.

It is a good game but could be much,much better if you had the option of being able to issue orders when paused. Without this it can become an overwhelming and rushed clickfest as you try to keep up with the action all across the battlefield.

Some other real time games such as the wonderful Command Ops series get this right.

I just feel that with this option the game would be much more accessible for new and intermediate level players and more copies would be sold. Veteran players could still play on the harder level with the option disabled.

No, not with the toolbar version. But if you use the Courier&Maps mod, the game will pause while you use the written courier system. -Marching Through Georgia

There is a way to pause the game as you wish with the above mod.

The only drawback is that the official scenarios cannot be played using mods. There are scores and ranking with those scenarios so they want those to be played and recorded giving everyone the same rules. Those scenarios are available to be played unranked.

In most of your game play you find your own tastes and will be using mods, so pausing the game with the above mod should not be a problem. It should help anyway. Using RebBuglers toolbar helps to do other thing quicker also. These things will help, but it is still a real time game. Biggest things with couriers is experience (speed will come with repetition)and knowing what commands to give to get the results that you want.

On another point we have all been "spoiled" in playing computer games in that we get all knowledge instantaneously and are able to make instantaneous on the spot decisions anywhere on the battlefield at anytime. With couriers another element is being added to game play with more of a realistic approach to giving orders. We have played MP games where we have only communicated through couriers. Imagine keeping a 6 vs 6 game or a 10 vs 10 game going with C&C only using couriers with all players getting couriers at different times.

I hope I have understood the previous posts and have given helpful comment.

I just want to give orders while paused until i get up to speed. It would be a big help when moving up to higher command scenarios. I think having it as an option would be a good thing. The game does pause with the courier mod, but i believe you still can't give orders, it's basically like hitting the pause key. I love the courier system it certainly does add to the atmosphere, I prefer to use whenever i can. the mods are great and the most important thing for me is i'm having great fun with the game glad i bought it.

_____________________________

Enjoy when you can, and endure when you must. ~Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

*I'm in the Wargamer middle ground* I don't buy all the wargames I want, I just buy more than I need.

It sounds as if you are micro-managing your troops too much, (sending too many orders). You can send multiple orders to a unit via the courier system. For instance the usual procedure for moving a unit someplace is to give this sequence of orders. 1. Move to a location. 2. Face a certain direction. 3. Deploy in a certain formation. 4. Assume a certain stance. 5. Use the roads.

These 5 commands are put into one courier order and sent off. To give a better idea of how to fight a battle using couriers, I wrote an AAR demonstrating the technique. I used a Custom difficulty setting as it's a good compromise between the Goodyear Blimp view and HITS view of the battle. As you will see, not that many commands need be issued.

Did you ever get around to the brigade courier AAR you mentioned in that thread?

I did, but never posted it. Using couriers to move regiments around can be done, but it is difficult, especially if trying to maneuver around the flank of the enemy. It is much easier to use the toolbar and point and click. Since regiments don't usually move very far from the commander, it is easier to control them in that manner. Since I use couriers at brigade level and above, I make sure to be near the regiment I am giving an order to, in order to minimize the time delay.